Salem's Lizzie museum can keep its name, for now

A legal tug of war between Fall River and Salem came no closer to delivering a verdict on who has the right to use the Lizzie Borden “museum” trademark.

Deborah Allard

A legal tug of war between Fall River and Salem came no closer to delivering a verdict on who has the right to use the Lizzie Borden “museum” trademark.

A federal judge declined Thursday to temporarily ban The True Story of Lizzie Borden, a Salem museum that opened about a month ago, from using a name similar to one trademarked by the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast in Fall River, the site where Lizzie allegedly used a hatchet to kill her wealthy father and stepmother more than a century ago.

Donald Woods, owner of the bed and breakfast, said the new museum and gift shop in Salem has ignored repeated warnings that its name infringes on his “Lizzie Borden Museum” trademark.

“At this stage, we’re waiting to see how we go forward,” Woods told The Herald News.

He said he and Leonard Pickel, owner of the Salem museum, were not in court Thursday. Their attorneys, Jeremy Blackowicz, representing Woods and Pickel’s attorney, Douglas Otto, met with U.S. District Court Judge William Young.

Young ordered the two sides to prepare for trial and said he may rule later on Wood’s plea for a temporary injunction, according to the Associated Press. He did not immediately set a trial date.

“A trial could be nothing more than meeting with the judge,” Woods said.

Woods filed a lawsuit last month and asked for a temporary injunction against Pickel. The Salem business owns the domain name www.lizziebordenmuseum.com and uses an e-mail address with a similar name, LizzieBordenMuseum@gmail.com.

Woods said the new venue, located in Salem’s downtown witch district, could cause confusion over ties with his company and could harm the reputation the bed and breakfast has fought to cultivate over several years. But Pickel said Woods hasn’t marketed his bed and breakfast as a museum — effectively abandoning the trademark.

Otto argued that Woods’ business is more likely to be confused with the Fall River Historical Society — a nonprofit that maintains the largest collection of artifacts relating to the Bordens’ life and Lizzie’s trial.

Fall River is also home to the murder site at 92 Second St., the Borden family graves at Oak Grove Cemetery, and Lizzie’s home in later life on Prospect Street.

Woods said that Pickel opening a museum that has neither the correct location or any Borden memorabilia, and touting it as the “True Story of Lizzie Borden,” was a “slap in the face.”

Lizzie was acquitted of the 1892 slayings but was widely believed to be guilty. No one else was ever charged with the crime. Authors continue to pen their views of the murder and construct Lizzie’s life.

E-mail Deborah Allard at dallard@heraldnews.com.

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